Erwin Wiens Selected as 2023 Grape King

Nov 17, 2023

Grape Growers of Ontario and Farm Credit Canada are pleased to announce that Niagara-on-the-Lake grape grower Erwin Wiens has been chosen by his peers as the 2023 Grape King (pictured – credit Denis Cahill).“We are delighted that Erwin Wiens has been selected as 2023

Grape King. Erwin will be a wonderful ambassador for the Ontario grape and wine industry,” says Grape Growers of Ontario Chair, Matthias Oppenlaender. “The annual crowning of the Grape Kingis a time honoured tradition that began in 1956 to recognizeexemplary vineyard management and knowledge of the industry,” says Debbie Zimmerman, CEO of the Grape Growers of Ontario.“FCC is pleased to support the tradition of naming an Ontario

Grape King and with it, celebrating the best in the business like this year’s recipient, Erwin Wiens. Erwin exemplifies all the best qualities of Ontario grape growers. He contributes to the innovation, product quality, shared knowledge and enhanced access to consumers that ensures the long-term success of this valuable agricultural sector.” said George Klosler, Senior District Director, Farm Credit Canada. “Erwin is very deserving of being named Ontario’s Grape King and we wish him continued success.”

The Grape King carries the distinction of being nominated by their peers and selected by our industry judges who visit each of the nominated vineyards. The Grape King serves as a representative for Ontario’s grape and wine industry at events across the country, starting with the Invitational Grape Stomp on September 17th in Montebello Park and in the annual Grande Parade on September 23rd at the Niagara Grape and Wine Festival.

Erwin was raised in a fruit farming family. He attended Carleton University for Criminal Law where he met his wife, Dorothy. They raised four accomplished daughters, Brianna, MacKenzie, Taylor and Jessica and have a son-in-law Daniel. Today, Erwin and Dorothy tend to a thriving 120-acre vineyard, cultivating a range of grapes including Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Gris and Merlot.

Erwin is a valuable member of the Board of Directors of the Grape Growers of Ontario since 2015, where he now presides as the Chair of their Sustainability Committee. Furthermore, Erwin is Chair of the Niagara Regional Irrigation Committee and a member of both the Niagaraon-the-Lake Irrigation Committee and the Agricultural Committee.

Following a distinguished 31-year career in law enforcement, Erwin retired from the Hamilton Police Service. Since 2018, Erwin has been an integral member of the Niagaraon-the-Lake
Town Council, where he currently holds the esteemed position of Deputy Lord Mayor. In this role, Erwin also lends his expertise as a Board member on the Niagara Parks Commission and the Niagara District Airport Commission

Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators